The mead is still quite young, but I tasted a sample and was a little surprised by the result. The harsh alcohol flavors are now non-existant. I've got a slight taste of yeast from the sample, but it's faint. The honey taste is there but almost negligible.

It tastes like a glass of sweetened drinking water. No alcohol burn, no defined honey taste or anything.

I drank a 150ml sample of it and was catching a buzz, so it's definitely booze.

Anyone produce a batch like this before? Should I just age it out and see if the honey tastes intensify? Would you recommend the addition of acid blend or something to make it pop? Looking for some advice here.

fatbloke

01-02-2014, 05:03 PM

Hum ? Maybe some oak ?.....

skunkboy

01-02-2014, 08:19 PM

Take it the honey didn't have any big flavor notes? You could let it age for a while longer and taste it again, back sweeten for some more honey character if it isn't already too sweet for you. Or tweak the flavor with things like oak or fruit, if everything but the flavor are good.

Shmafty

01-02-2014, 08:43 PM

I had a big batch of a dry traditional that lost a lot of it's honey characteristics after fermentation. When I pulled it back out after a little over a year of aging, a lot of the honey flavor had come back on its own.

Amazer

01-02-2014, 09:29 PM

throw some vanilla at it?

Chevette Girl

01-02-2014, 10:45 PM

A number of others have had the same experience as Shmafty, give it some time to age and it's pretty common for the honey flavour to come back after six months to a year. I've now even had it happen with one batch that was so fruit-forward I'd wondered why I'd bothered with honey since I couldn't even tell when I bottled it, but now it's back :)

mannye

01-03-2014, 01:17 AM

Seems to me it's been aging for over a year now if my maths aren't clouded by booze...

WVMJack

01-03-2014, 04:26 AM

"they" say you are not supposed to leave yeast to long on 71B, I have never done it so dont really know the consequences, but one of the off flavors I would think that comes with this is a yeasty taste. Has this cleared up yet? Was your honey a light honey or a dark honey? Degassed? You could take a sample out and add some acid blend to it and see if that adds some life to it. With the starting gravity so high it might bee one of those meads that just takes a long while to get gooder. WVMJ

Mirakk

01-03-2014, 10:55 AM

"they" say you are not supposed to leave yeast to long on 71B, I have never done it so dont really know the consequences, but one of the off flavors I would think that comes with this is a yeasty taste. Has this cleared up yet? Was your honey a light honey or a dark honey? Degassed? You could take a sample out and add some acid blend to it and see if that adds some life to it. With the starting gravity so high it might bee one of those meads that just takes a long while to get gooder. WVMJ

I didn't let it Autolyze. When the fermentation stopped, I used Super Klear and waited 48 hours before racking it off the lees.

The honey was a little light. I degassed/aerated the mixture 2x a day until the 1/3 sugar break with an egg beater.

Based on what I've heard here, I'm just going to continue letting it age, and see what happens with it.

Marshmallow Blue

01-03-2014, 12:00 PM

My bet is that it just needs some age. It's really crazy how much comes back out of nowhere around the 8-12 month mark.

mannye

01-03-2014, 03:16 PM

My bet is that it just needs some age. It's really crazy how much comes back out of nowhere around the 8-12 month mark.

But... if he made it on 9/15/12 Isn't it already like 15 months?

Mirakk

01-03-2014, 03:45 PM

But... if he made it on 9/15/12 Isn't it already like 15 months?

Yeah, sorry about that. It was made in 2013. Not 2012. Typo FTL

It's 4 months old now.

mannye

01-03-2014, 03:53 PM

Yeah, sorry about that. It was made in 2013. Not 2012. Typo FTL

It's 4 months old now.

Thanks! I thought for a second there I was experiencing time travel dyslexia. Wait... you guys haven't heard about that yet... I'VE SAID TOO MUCH!;D